[fofix-gcode-issuetracker] Issue 666 in fofix: Add a handicap / cheat to treat guitar / bass like drums (no strumming required)

[fofix at googlecode.com]

Comment #14 on issue 666 by raynebc: Add a handicap / cheat to treat guitar  
/ bass like drums (no strumming required)
http://code.google.com/p/fofix/issues/detail?id=666

There is a pretty high reward to difficulty to implement ratio for this  
feature, so here's to hoping it gets added.  Even without pro-keys support  
native in FoFiX, people could set up a fake keys chart by doing the  
following:

1. Create the chart so that each guitar track is a different range of 5  
keys (ie. PART GUITAR is keys 1 through 5, PART RHYTHM is keys 6 through  
10, etc.).
2. Connect a synthesizer and map some keys to button controls in the game
3. Play the track in multiplayer mode.  Each of the tracks would be played  
by the one person using the synthesizer, so he'd have to make sure each  
player loaded the correct instrument part so that the left-most synthesizer  
key was mapped to fret 1 of the fret board on the left of the screen, etc.

This way, a person could simulate up to 20 keys worth of synth in a single  
chart (5 keys for each of the 4 playable guitar parts).  Once FoFiX runs  
smoothly enough with this many players, and if it ever got support for  
custom instrument parts, a fifth part could be added to this procedure to  
make it the Pro-Keys full playable range of 25 notes.  This would be the  
easiest way to emulate pro keys playback in FoFiX, even though the  
experience won't be the same (ie. the octave shifting that RB3 will use),  
but the people creating the chart can make section markers, etc. to label  
the parts where the user would be shifting to an octave on either side so  
that they scroll by accordingly.

If this was implemented, and the RB3 MIDIs were acquired, it would be  
trivial to convert them to a suitable 5 instrument part chart to be played  
this way.  Of course, to be very usable, the fretboards would have to be  
rendered in proper order from left to right.  A custom mod/theme could  
probably be crafted to make line them up nicely for this purpose.